10 National Stereotypes

Recently I was reading about a brand new guide to the UK, published in the US, and ended up wondering where they did their research. I just couldn’t recognise my country from what they said. It seems that if there’s one stereotype that refuses to die, it’s that of nationality … (PS no offence intended to anyone)10 National Stereotypes

1. The British

The British stereotypesPhoto Credit: Irene.B.

At 4pm sharp, right across the land, the entire country stops for this age-old ritual of tea, sandwiches and cakes. According to the above-mentioned guide, that is. Now, I admit that most British people I know can’t get through the day without several cups of tea, but I have never known anyone make afternoon tea. Not once.

2. The French

The French stereotypesPhoto Credit: Hughes Léglise-Bataille

They do love their strikes, the French, don’t they? On the slightest pretext, they down tools and go for a nice march, waving their banners. The civil servants strike. The transport workers strike. Now everyone’s objecting to the prospect of having to retire at 62. They should think themselves lucky they’re not British – we’ll have to soldier on until we’re 67, with no time for afternoon tea …

3. The Americans

The American stereotypesPhoto Credit: astrycula

Everybody knows that all Americans are obnoxious, overweight, ignorant gun-toting flag-waving patriots who want to invade every other country on earth, right? No, this is the problem with stereotypes – how can 200 million people all be the same? The US is such a vast country, and in my limited experience every American I’ve ever met has been friendly and pleasant.

4. Mexicans

The Mexicans stereotypesPhoto Credit: harrycobra

My mother thinks that all Mexicans are bandits (I think she’s seen too many cowboy films). Everybody else thinks that they are lazy and spend all day sleeping in the sun. On the contrary, every Mexican I have met has been very hard-working. American stereotype them as illegals. Or is that a stereotype itself?

5. Brazilians

The Brazilian stereotypesPhoto Credit: Λl℮Roda®

All Brazilians are unbelievably good-looking, have perfect tanned bodies, and spend all their time lounging around on beaches. I have only met one Brazilian – and trust me, he should never be seen on a beach. If this stereotype were true, what would all the Brazilians who live nowhere near a beach do (it is a very big country …).

6. Canadians

Canadians stereotypesPhoto Credit: LunaModule

The poor Canadians must get so tired of their country being portrayed as about nothing more than moose, ice hockey and Mounties. Then there’s being mistaken for Americans, and labelled as boring …

7. Any Muslim nation

Muslim StereotypesPhoto Credit: Mansour Ali

Most assumptions about nationality are quite funny, if not entirely true, but Muslims are now the subject of the most dangerous stereotype. They are all considered to be at best religious extremists who want to impose their way of life on everyone else, and at worst terrorists. Very sad. It ignores the major contribution of Islam to architecture, medicine and literature, and that the majority are peaceful people.

8. Italy

Italian StereotypesPhoto Credit: BravoPapa

All Italians are terrible drivers. The young people spend their time riding around on scooters. The men are Mamma’s boys, live at home until they are 35, and no-one will ever cook pasta sauce as good as Mamma.

9. Scandinavians

Scandinavians stereotypesPhoto Credit: Heiðr

All Scandinavians are tall, good-looking blondes who love winter sports. They are totally relaxed about their bodies and have no problems being naked in company. Other than this they are totally boring and have never done anything of cultural or historical note.

10. Africans

Africans stereotypesPhoto Credit: Eric Lafforgue

Whichever country they come from, Africans are either primitive tribesmen, gun-toting warmongerers or gigolos looking for rich western women. They are also all musical, spend much of their time dancing, and all live in poverty unless they are part of a corrupt elite.

Well, I’m happy to laugh at how the British are portrayed, but what do you think of the stereotypes of your own country? Do you find them funny, ignorant or offensive?

3 COMMENTS

Love the website as much as I love guns!! I was a gas station clerk and had a French couple, trying to buy gas, they couldnt quite understand, After a while I got the Ehhhhh. Thought they were being dismissive. But thanks for clearing that up.

As a Scandinavian I guess you could say the stereotype is vaugely true. But yeah the big blonde thing can get a bit tiresome. I am not blonde and average hight (180cm) and build. So when in American people kept insisting I didn’t look Norwegian or that I had to be mixed or something. Americans seem to think Europe is stratified. Like up north everybody is blonde. Then there’s the brown haired people and then the dark haired. Don’t think people think about the fact that people have mixed and moved around for thousands of years. Europe is not different.

As for being boring, that is partly true but at least we are not as boring as the Germans and Swiss 😉 It is hard to for things to be exicting when society is very consensus oriented. I love watching American politics because it is a total mess and nobody can agree on anything. Scandinavian politics is rather boring because people actually manage to cooperate and get along. Sorry I am exaggurating, but my point is that there are pros and cons to boring and exciting 😉

As an extensive international traveler over the years, I found it interesting that there were more blonde blue-eyed people in Italy, northern Italy in particular; than in Norway and Sweden. I’ve traveled extensively throughout all regions of Italy, Greece, Croatia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland.